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Saturday, October 29, 2011

I'll be awake early on Sunday morning, getting ready for the annual KSER SCARY STORIES RADIO SHOW. Y'all are invited to listen in!

Okay. The kids aren't very scary. But our stories really are!

Here's the link: www.kser.org Click the "Listen Now!" button in the upper left corner of the screen, and then sit back to enjoy some of our favorite stories of the year.

Our show broadcasts live on Sunday mornings from 9 to 11am Swampland Time. If you oversleep or are busy fighting off zombies or something on Sunday morning, there is now an ARCHIVE feature available that stores two weeks worth of programming online. Click here, or find the "Radio Re-Player" button on the station website.

If you need some scary stories right this instant, you can find a couple on this blog:

Sunday, October 23, 2011

It's true, I finally made up my mind, and ordered a riding jacket to cover up my frigid gluteous maximus! I decided on the Muddy Creek Short Coat. Cost was about $100, and shipping was fast-fast-fast.

Sisters in wickednes? They'll never know which of us is the real culprit.

"My" jacket arrived in the mail about a week ago; I've worn in it a couple of times, but until yesterday the rain did not fall when I was in the saddle.

This photo taken at the Hallowe'en Ride yesterday, when it DID rain.
It just didn't rain while we were taking this picture.

There was, however, a problem with "my" jacket:

Although I followed the ordering instructions on the website, the "size medium" jacket they sent me was...roooooooomy. Like, roomy enough to fit me inside the jacket with Pickles zipped up there with me, and Fiddle's head too, with enough room left over that I could stash my camera in the inside pocket.

I cinched the drawstring waist up so tightly that the string dangled perilously and had to be double-knotted. Hmmm.

The size medium jacket fits Patty correctly

Patty tried on the size medium jacket and decided that it fit her properly: roomy enough to allow her to add warm fleecy layers in cold weather, without giving her so much room that she could park the truck inside at night.

So, she ordered the size "small" jacket, and when it arrived, we traded. Now we both have beautiful jackets that keep the rain off and cover our hindquarters!

WARNING: the horizontal reflective stripe will IMMEDIATELY
alert your instructor if you are collapsing your ribcage,
dropping your shoulder, or scrunching your hip.
If you want to disguise these bad habits, take the coat off!

At the insistance of the Best Crewperson on the Planet, we (and anyone else in the group who purchases this jacket) will be adding some sort of distinguishing mark to each garment, so that the BCotP can fetch the correct jacket when we all come flying into a vetcheck needing our rain coats! I'm wondering if I can get a skull and crossed bones embroidered on the collar. Hmm.

Patty demonstrates a full range of motion,
un-impeded by the rain coat

Out on the trail for the first time with both of us properly protected, the sun came out.

What is that bright light ahead? I'm thinking: aliens.

Ahhhh, another virtue of this jacket: two-way zippers allow you to pull it off your shoulders without having to take it all the way off.

Patty cautions that if you dismount while your jacket is thus arranged on your body,
it will fall down around your knees and hogtie you in a most undignified manner.
I didn't ask, but that sure sounds like the voice of experience.

A light sprinkle of precipitation gave us an excuse to pull up the hoods.

The hood is adjustable so it will cover your helmet when you're wearing one.
You can make the hood smaller when you aren't helmeted, so you can see out.

I noticed that the hood keeps in a bunch of body heat. I always ride with a synthetic helmet liner; else I sunburn in summer through the helmet vent holes, and I lose too much body heat in winter. The addition of the hood made me feel much warmer very quickly.